Which Muscles Do You Work When You Do Squats?

Squats have developed a reputation as a glute-building exercise — but the truth is that they strengthen almost every muscle in your lower body. When you do squats, the muscles worked include your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves and even your core muscles.

Ahead, learn about how squats target each of those muscle groups, how to do a squat with proper form, benefits of the exercise, common mistakes (and how to fix them), variations and alternatives.

Your quadriceps and glutes are the most powerful of the muscle "engines" that drive you through the squat motion, according to the American Sports and Fitness Association (ASFA). As you're coming up out of the squat position, your quadriceps fire to straighten your legs at the knee, while your glutes straighten your body at the hips. The end result of this simultaneous action? You stand up.

The reverse happens as you sink back down into the squat: Your quadriceps and glutes both lengthen under load as you flex at the hip and the knee, a movement known as an eccentric contraction. This lengthening under load is what controls your descent and keeps you from simply plopping onto the floor at the mercy of gravity.

Your soleus muscle, the smaller of your two primary calf muscles, is responsible for plantar-flexing your foot (or to put it another way, pointing your toes) when your knee is bent, per the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). And although your heels never come off the ground during a squat, plantar-flexion is still the motion that helps return your shin to a vertical position from the slight forward lean it assumes when you're in the "down" position of the squat.

Because your knee is bent while plantar-flexion is happening, your gastrocnemius — the bigger, meatier muscle that sits on the outside of your calf — isn't providing much power to the movement, but it does help stabilize your leg.

When you do squats, the muscles worked also include your hamstrings. Your hamstrings counter the direct forces of your quadriceps to help stabilize your knee, reducing shearing forces and strain across the joint, per the ASFA.

Another notable muscle, the adductor magnus, keeps your hamstrings company on the posterior (rear) part of your thigh. This muscle also kicks in to help your glutes power the movement, extending your leg at the hip.

Because your hips hinge backward, a certain amount of forward torso lean is necessary to make squats happen — which means your core muscles all play an important part in maintaining proper squat form and preventing injury.

The further forward you lean, the more your erector spinae muscles are involved in holding your back straight, per the NASM, while your rectus abdominis (the so-called "six-pack muscle") and obliques counter the pull of the erector spinae to keep you stable.

Of course, you're only going to get that sort of muscle engagement if you use proper form. Squats are an endlessly versatile exercise that you can do with only your body weight for resistance, or using dumbbells, kettlebells or a barbell for extra weight.

If you're just starting out, one or two sets of eight to 12 repetitions is a good goal.

Building muscle in your lower body — or anywhere for that matter — also prevents muscle imbalances and improves the strength of your bones and connective tissues (tendons and ligaments), according to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). This, in turn, helps prevent injuries like fractures and tears in your bones, connective tissues and muscles.

You may not realize it, but you perform squats in everyday life when you sit down in a chair or bend down to pick something up. So, adding squats — and other lower-body exercises — to your workout sessions help strengthen the muscles responsible for aiding in these everyday tasks, according to the ACE.

"Strong, powerful glutes help you jump higher and run faster," per the ACE. So, if you play sports that involve these actions, regularly doing squats will help improve your overall performance in these areas.

Squat injuries are often caused by mistakes in form — so it's worth going over a few key issues to avoid. Some common mistakes to avoid, and their fixes, include:

Reduce the amount of weight you're lifting and use a mirror or a lifting buddy for feedback as you focus on keeping your knees "up" instead of letting them sag in. It might help to pay close attention to your feet: Sometimes reminding yourself to push through your entire foot (instead of just the inside edge) will help correct this.

Here's another useful cue that might help: Your toes should point straight forward or slightly out and, from your perspective as you look down the length of your body, your knees should always point in the same direction as your toes.

Some people try to do squats without leaning forward from their hips at all — but this places a lot of pressure on your knees, according to the ACE. Your hips actually start the motion, moving down and back, which in turn requires your knees to bend and your torso to tilt forward slightly.

Have you ever heard the directive "Lift with your legs, not your back"? That certainly applies to squats ⁠— so, when you begin to stand back up, think of pressing through all of both feet and driving with your legs to initiate the motion. If you try to start the motion in your back instead, you'll get hurt.

You'll find almost endless variations on the squat, usually based on where you place your feet, what sort of weight you use or where you hold the weight. A few key variations to be aware of include:

In this exercise, you hold the barbell across the fronts of your shoulders. As confirmed by EMG (electromyography) analysis in a small January 2015 study of 12 participants, published in the ‌Journal of Sports Sciences‌, the front squat emphasizes quadriceps activity and decreases trunk lean. That makes it potentially a good choice for those with back concerns, but a poor choice for those with knee issues.

You can do squats with an increasingly wider stance until you hit the wide, toes-out stance of the plié squat — as long as you follow the cardinal rules of proper form: Your knees must always point in the same direction as your toes, and don't let your knees cave in toward your midline.

A wide stance emphasizes the involvement of your hip adductors, or inner thigh muscles, per an ExRx.net squat analysis. Glute activity increases when you do sumo squats with a heavy load, and it's worth noting that hip torque (force) increases as well — so if you struggle with hip pain, this probably isn't the squat variation for you.

Doing your squats with dumbbells means giving up some of the overall stability of the barbell — but in return, you get more flexibility in the way you hold the weights. Two of the most common dumbbell squat variations are letting your arms rest by your sides (so the dumbbells "ride along" on the outsides of your body throughout the squat) or holding the dumbbells racked at shoulder level. The latter more or less mimics the positioning of a barbell, but gives you greater flexibility in the angle at which you hold your hands.

Another dumbbell variation is a goblet squat, where you hold a single weight by one end and let it dangle between your legs as you squat. This variation sometimes makes it easier for beginners to achieve proper form, and it allows you to do wide squats. But, depending on the size of the weight you're using, the lower end of the weight may contact the ground and thus limit your range of motion.

Overhead squats are an advanced squat variation that require a lot of shoulder and ankle mobility so you can keep the barbell pressed straight up overhead while doing the exercise.

Jump squats are an explosive move, which causes your heart rate to spike. This means your cardiovascular system benefits more from this exercise.

Barbell back squats strengthen your quads without putting as much stress on your knees, making them good for people with knee issues. Make sure you rest the barbell on your traps versus your neck, or else you risk pain and/or injury.

If you can't perform squats or any of their variations due to pain or injury, there are alternative exercises you can do that work the same muscles. Here are a few options you can do anywhere.

Because there's less demand on your knees, the reverse lunge is the most joint-friendly type of lunge. This makes it a great choice for beginners or those coming back from injury.

Step-ups use your lower body in a different way than squats, so if you can't do squats without pain, you may be able do step-ups as a squat alternative. Start with a box where your thigh is no higher than parallel with the ground.

The glute bridge is a great squat alternative because you still have to push through your lower body, but it doesn't put as much stress on your joints as a squat.